1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a content distribution device, a content distribution method, a viewer terminal, and a content reproduction method, and relates to an commercial insertion method for distributing, through the Internet, content having commercials inserted therein, for example.
2. Related Art
In recent years, the viewer rate of TV (television) programs broadcasted in real time has been decreasing while the viewer rate of the downloaded content and content on the Internet has been increasing. In many TV broadcast programs, commercial spots and commercial rates are set corresponding to the expected viewer rate of the program, and commercials (CM) provided by program sponsors are inserted in the program. However, the effect of the commercials is questioned since the commercials are distributed through real-time television broadcasting but they are not distributed through the Internet. Therefore, JP-A 2008-22298 (Kokai) discloses, the following system to insert commercials in the content distributed through the Internet.
In this system, a terminal of a content production company, a terminal of an commercial agency or an advertiser, and a terminal and an image distribution server of an image distributor are connected to one another through a network. As in the television broadcasting, the commercial spots and commercial rates are set for each content. The commercial agency purchases the commercial spot from the image distributor in accordance with the conditions specified by the advertiser, and the image distribution server of the image distributor distributes, to the viewer terminal, content having the commercial image data inserted in the commercial spot purchased by the advertiser. As stated above, JP-A 2008-22298 (Kokai) provides a system to trade, with the advertiser, commercials of content distributed through the Internet over the image distribution server, and a system to distribute, to the viewer, the content having commercials inserted therein.
However, a great deal of time and effort are required for the image distributor, the advertiser, and the commercial attorney when the system of JP-A 2008-22298 (Kokai) is used to insert commercials in the content. This is because the image distribution server of the image distributor has to acquire the commercial image data from the terminal of the commercial agency, and the advertiser and the commercial agency have to previously specify, to the image distributor, the conditions of the commercial to be inserted and distributed.